WHEN THEY WERE FAB

ROUGH AND READY: That’s what the Beatles were when Britain’s Granada TV first captured them in 1962 at the Cavern Club for an appearance that never aired. (It was deemed too grainy.) In the years that followed, they set styles, created the template for MTV (winning the Video Vanguard Moonman at the network’s inaugural Video Music Awards) and grew with the medium. Here are their reflections on those early television days, captured in the 2000 Beatles Anthology book and various other sources.

Granada TV special, 1962

George Harrison: It was really hot, and we were asked to dress up properly. We had shirts and ties and little black pullovers. So we looked quite smart. It was our first television appearance. It was big time, a TV-company-coming-to-film-us excitement.

Sunday Night at the London Palladium, 1963

Going on the was amazing for me because, years before, I would rehearse in the living room in our house and my mother’s best friend would always say, “See you on the, son. See your name in lights.” So I always wanted to play there. There was nothing bigger in the world than making it to the …and we were on and it was .